UConn women focus on today against Providence

STORRS -- Pretty much from the time Geno Auriemma accepted the job at UConn in the mid-1980s, an unselfish brand of basketball has been a trademark of the Hall of Famer's teams.

Not sharing the ball has never been an option for Auriemma's Huskies, but in some ways his current group may be taking the concept to new heights.

When UConn plays at Providence today (2 p.m., CPTV), Maya Moore needs four assists and Kelly Faris eight to reach triple digits for the season. They could soon be joined by Tiffany Hayes, who is just 13 shy of 100. Bria Hartley and Lorin Dixon also have a chance to finish with more than 100. Now that would be a noteworthy achievement, because no UConn team has featured more than three players with 100 assists.

"You'd probably have to go back to the (2001-02) team that was as good a passing team -- or had the potential to be as good of a passing team," Auriemma said. "This team has the potential night in and night out to be a really good passing team. I think when your forwards are good passers, you have a chance to have a great (passing) team, because that is usually where the ball dies. The offense usually dies when the ball goes to a big guy, and they don't know what do with it next. We are fortunate that all five of our starters are pretty good about getting the ball from one place to another, that they can see things, but it is unusual to have that."

It helps when Moore is one of the forwards -- as well as having a starting center like Stefanie Dolson with a deft passing touch.

While Dolson won't reach triple digits in assists this season, her ability and willingness to share the ball helps with the flow of the offense.

"One guy is not dominating the ball," Auriemma said. "I think in past years, whether it was Renee (Montgomery) or Diana (Taurasi) or one of those guys, the ball was in their hands all the time, and they made every decision. That year 2001, with Sue (Bird), Shea (Ralph), D (Taurasi), Sveta (Abrosimova), Asjha (Jones), that crew, that was pretty special the way they passed the ball, but you'd have to go that far back.

"Probably as Bria gets older, as Kelly gets a little older, we bring a bunch of new guys in, they will probably dominate the numbers the next couple of years.

But right now, because we don't have that, it is spread out."

UConn has been credited assists on 2 of every 3 baskets, which is the program's highest ratio since the 2003-04 national championship team. Also, if Dixon finishes with more minutes played than Dolson or Dolson ends up with more assists than turnovers, this squad would join the 1990-91 and 2005-06 teams as squads where the top five players (in terms of minutes played) each finished with more assists than turnovers.

"Just having so many players out on the floor who can make the right pass, it encourages everybody to cut hard, to cut to score, because they know that they can get a pass to score," Moore said. "I think it makes it tough to guard as well, because you have to react to every cut, because the person your teammate is guarding can make that pass. I think it makes us that much more deadly on the offensive end.

"It takes a lot of timing, a lot of practice, a lot of knowing your teammates, a lot of seeing ahead of the play. I think sometimes we are a little too unselfish, and we try to force things. It can kind of hurt us like it did in the first half of the (West Virginia) game, when we were making silly turnovers.

I know we can fix those (mistakes). It is such a great skill to have. If you can pass the ball, you are going to be in the game."